No Surrender! | Page 5

have seen the colour flying up into the girl's face;
but I only looked at it as boys' nonsense. Still, I don't say that I am
averse to your suit. We may be said to be partners, in this trade of yours,
and we both owe each other a good deal. During the last eight years
you must have run something like forty cargoes, and never lost a keg or
a bale; and I doubt if as much could be said for any other craft in the
trade.
"Still, one can't calculate on always being lucky. I don't think anyone
would turn traitor, when the whole countryside is interested in the
matter; and I wouldn't give much for the life of anyone who whispered
as much as a word to the revenue people. Still, accidents will take place
sometimes. Your father must have done well with the trade, and so
have I.
"At any rate, I will leave it in Patsey's hands. I have enough of them,

and to spare. And of course, you will be able to bring her over,
sometimes, to pay us a visit here.
"I think, too, that your offer of taking Leigh over with you helps to
decide me in your favour. They are all growing up and, if anything
were to put a stop to our business, this place would not keep them all;
and it would be a great thing, for Patsey, to have her brother as a
companion when you are away. The boy would learn French, and in
your father's business would get such a knowledge of the trade with
Nantes as should serve him in good stead. At any rate, he will learn
things that are a good deal more useful to him than those he gets from
the curate.
"Well, you know you will find her in the dairy, as usual. You had better
go and see what she says to it."
It is probable that Jean Martin had already a shrewd idea of what
Patsey's answer would be, and he presently returned to her father,
radiant. Patsey, indeed, had given her heart to the cheery young sailor;
and although it seemed to her a terrible thing, that she should go to
settle in France, she had the less objection to it, inasmuch as the fear
that the smuggling would be sooner or later discovered, and that ruin
might fall upon Netherstock, was ever present in her mind, and in that
of her elder sister.
To her brothers, engaged in the perilous business, it was regarded as a
pleasant excitement, without which their lives would be intolerably dull.
It was not that she or they regarded the matter in the light of a crime,
for almost everyone on that part of the coast looked upon smuggling as
a game, in which the wits of those concerned in it were pitted against
those of the revenue men. It brought profit to all concerned, and
although many of the gentry found it convenient to express indignation,
at the damage done to the king's revenue by smuggling; there were
none of them who thought it necessary to mention, to the coast guard,
when by some accident a keg of brandy, or a parcel with a few pounds
of prime tobacco, was found in one of the outhouses.
Patsey had suffered more than her sister, being of a more lively

imagination, and being filled with alarm and anxiety whenever she
knew that her father and the boys were away at night. Then, too, she
was very fond of Leigh, and had built many castles in the air as to his
future; and the thought that, not only would he be with her, but would
be in the way of making his road to fortune, was very pleasant to her.
She knew that if he remained at Netherstock he would grow up like his
brothers. His father might, from time to time, talk of putting him into
some business; but she understood his ways, and was certain that
nothing would come of it.
Martin had, before, expressed to her his doubt as to whether her father
would consent to her going away with him; but she had no fear on the
subject. In his quiet, easygoing way he was fond of his children; and
would scarcely put himself out to oppose, vehemently, anything on
which they had set their hearts. He had, too, more than once said that he
wished some of them could be settled elsewhere; for a time of trouble
might come, and it would be well to have other homes, where some of
them could be received.
"Patsey has consented," Jean Martin said, joyously, as he rejoined the
squire.
"Well, that is all right. I think, myself, that it is for the best.